Have I broken something??

[RichH]

Yesterday we took advantage of what turned out to be a perfect day out and took a fast trip to Lymington for Lunch and then back, sea was really flat and good for some speed testing.

However, coming up the river in Christchurch we suddenly heard a bang and the engine stalled / cut out, at first I thought we had just hit the bottom which can be a problem in Christchurch but looking at the depth it was not the bottom. The engine restarted and we carried on back to the mooring and really all seemed well.

My questions are though what may have caused us to stall / cut out, I assume we hit something submerged which must have hit the drive.

Also how much side to side play should there be in the drive as I examined it on return and can move it manually about 2/3 inches either way.

I will have another look today but just wondered if I am just a bit worried

Thanks

[mlines]

If there is a break in the rain I might be over at our boat later to re-fit the plotter so I will play with our drive.

When we hit the bottom a few years ago the witness marks on the prop showed that that was what happened

When we hit a pushchair earlier this year there were score marks on the skeg.

The drive should kick upwards if it hits something but I am not sure this should affect the engine unless the ECU can detect it. I guess it is possible that something temporarily jammed the prop/drive?

[Ianfs]

. The drive should kick upwards if it hits something

Really? Which stern drive is it?

Are u sure the bang was physical i. e you could feel the thump or could it have been a backfire?

The side to side movement you mentioned could be a loose tiller pin.

[RichH]

Hi

pretty sure it was not an engine noise, we were only travelling at about 4-5 knots but it sounded quite hard, Hopefully sounded worse than it was.

the prop is not damaged but the Skeg may be marked.

It is a Bravo 3 drive.

[Ianfs]

Sounds like the engine was on tickover. I agree with Martin that its possible you may have hit something which might have caught the prop enough to stall the engine.

[ChrisH]

Had similar last week in Spain. Poodling back to our mooring down a small waterway and an almightly bang. Scared the life out of me.
Next day same thing in the same location. Clearly something solid under the water. Trimmed very high and went very slow after that when passing that location.
Nasty chunk missing from my prop now. Not pretty. Did not stall the engine though.
P.S Drive was sticking before this. (I think). Can't exactly remember the chronology